Towards a New Museum

by Victoria Newhouse

The last thirty years of the twentieth century saw the birth of more than six hundred art museums in the United States alone, with equal proliferation in much of Europe. Such projects as Frank Gehry's Guggenheim in Bilbao and Richard Meier's Getty Center in Los Angeles have dominated television newscasts and newspaper headlines worldwide. The success or failure of these new museums, in aesthetic, educational and financial terms, results from a variety of factors, none more important than their architecture. In this unique investigation, architectural historian Victoria Newhouse challenges many hitherto accepted premises of museum design. She demonstrates that new museums are often based on old concepts that no longer apply. This unvarnished analysis is informed by interviews with museum directors and curators, collectors, artists and the architects themselves. Newhouse divides her discussion according to the dominant characteristics of the museums: private collections, single-artist museums, sacred spaces, artists' self-created sites, and museum additions. In addition to the Getty and the Guggenheim Bilbao, the author discusses the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas; the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh; the Kiasma Museum for Contemporary Art in Helsinki; Donald Judd's Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas; the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Grand Louvre and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris; and many more.

Genres: Museology, Art, Nonfiction, Museums, Architecture

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1998

Reviews

[Brigham Wilson]

Interesting discussions on museum purpose, architecture and operations. Would love to see an updated version with all of the new construction that has occurred.

[Kristi]

Newhouse examines the impact of architectural designs on museological function. She challenges accepted design precepts, and critically analyzes the insufficiencies and outmoded affect these architectural principles exert on museums as modern institutions. Newhouse categorizes her study by private collections, single-artist museums, sacred spaces, artist created sites, and museum additions. She is singularly concerned with art museums, and the dialect between architectural space and art objects. It would be interesting to see this study broadened and enriched to consider a variety of museums.